MIAMI--()--Revealing results of a $3.5 million “extreme makeover,” City Furniture has opened the first of five stores in its tri-county expansion – the newly transformed Dadeland showroom in the Miami market.
“Today’s customers want a shopping experience that inspires their imagination, delivers outstanding quality for the price – and reflects a company’s lasting values. They research first online and expect a ‘wow’ factor when they invest time to visit a store.”
With business on the upswing as the economy improves, City Furniture President Keith Koenig said South Florida’s top-selling furniture retailer is launching construction of additional stores to dramatically increase sales in proven locations. Construction begins this month for Cutler Bay and Oakland Park stores. The company added 25 permanent jobs in connection with the Dadeland store and will add about 60 more firmwide by early 2013, Koenig said.
City Furniture’s highest performing location per square foot, the Dadeland showroom is one of the nation’s “greenest” furniture stores and brings City Furniture’s upscale next- generation store design into sharp focus for consumers.
“Consumers’ tastes and expectations are changing fast, and our next-generation design reflects that reality,” Koenig explained. “Today’s customers want a shopping experience that inspires their imagination, delivers outstanding quality for the price – and reflects a company’s lasting values. They research first online and expect a ‘wow’ factor when they invest time to visit a store.”
To meet those expectations, City Furniture is reinventing its store environments and introduced a new website this spring. While City Furniture’s exceptional value for the price and same-day delivery are unchanged, the store design features a host of energy efficient features. Each store in the expansion is being built to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, as an extension of City Furniture’s values and sustainable practices. Nationwide, only a handful of furniture stores have achieved LEED certification.
At the Dadeland store, a dramatic 27-foot-high central atrium (photo) adds eye appeal, along with richly textured “green” materials such as a cherry Hitchcock panel wall (photo) made with reclaimed wood, and natural stone feature walls with recycled Italian stone. Energy- and water-saving features include LED lighting and a super high efficiency HVAC system, plus drip irrigation and environmentally sound paints, coatings, adhesives, carpet and flooring.
At each new South Florida location, the company builds on the success of its City Furniture/Ashley Furniture HomeStore superstore concept. City Furniture is the Ashley Furniture HomeStore licensee in southeast and southwest Florida and has had strong results offering the two brands in adjoining stores. Once the Cutler Bay store is completed, the site’s existing City Furniture store will be transformed as an adjacent Ashley Furniture HomeStore. In the Fort Lauderdale market, an Ashley Furniture HomeStore will be built, and a fully renovated City Furniture store is a few doors north. Construction of a new Ashley Furniture HomeStore in West Palm Beach begins in August.
The retailer operates 14 City Furniture and nine Ashley Furniture HomeStore locations in Florida. For information visit www.cityfurniture.com.
Source: www.businesswire.com
Furniture Row Racing display strength after early accident - 9News
DOVER, Del. - The monster crushed them early, but Regan Smith and the Furniture Row Racing team got off the mat and muscled their way back to a 27th-place finish after falling more than 90 laps down as a result of a Lap 9 multicar wreck in Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway.
As the 43-car field was getting settled in at Dover's Monster Mile, a flurry of spins and crashes erupted on the daunting all-concrete oval, which included Smith's No. 78 Furniture Row/CSX Play it Safe Chevrolet.
The 12-car wreckfest started when Tony Stewart and Landon Cassill made contact coming out of Turn 2. Smith, who was trailing Stewart, ran out of real estate and rammed into Stewart's Chevy, causing a chain reaction.
Smith initially took the blame, but Stewart quickly countered and acquitted Smith of any wrongdoing.
"It wasn't Regan's fault -- he was right behind us and he didn't have anywhere to go," Stewart said. "The No. 83 (Cassill) was trying to get back down to the bottom and we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
After Smith drove his heavily-damaged car to the garage for lengthy repairs he gave his view on what happened.
"I got into the back of the No. 14 (Stewart) and started the whole thing," Smith said, who qualified 26th. "I will take full blame for that. Somehow they got checked up in front of me. I just didn't have time to slow up. I hate that there are so many wrecked race cars here. It's not fun for anybody, especially my guys on the Furniture Row/CSX Play it Safe Chevy."
The wreck, which was the biggest of the season, forced NASCAR to red-flag the race for nearly 20 minutes.
When the red flag was lifted the Furniture Row Racing crew went to work to repair the crippled race car. Within 45 minutes of the gold medal performance by the crew Smith returned to action, positioned in 37th place. He went on to gain 10 additional spots even though he finished the race 94 laps down.
"What is really shocking is to finish that many laps down and still post a 27th-place result," said Smith. "Though I am disappointed to get knocked out of contention early, I am proud of this Furniture Row Racing team for their hard and talented work to get me back on the track."
The finish dropped Smith from 23rd to 25th in the driver point standings. He is one point out of 24th and 10 out of 23rd.
"All I can say is that I am leaving Dover with a lot of pride due to how hard this entire race team worked to salvage a 27th-place finish today," Furniture Row crew chief Pete Rondeau said.
The FedEx 400 race winner was Jimmie Johnson. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose.
The race saw one red flag and seven cautions for 32 laps. There were 17 lead changes among seven drivers.
The next Cup race is Sunday (June 10) at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
Source: www.9news.com
Homeward Vets of Southampton gives furnishings to those in need - Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON - On a hot afternoon in May, Rodney Boyce sweated as he helped carry furniture up the stairs to his apartment on Village Hill. But he wasn't complaining about the heavy lifting; in fact, he couldn't stop beaming.
"I'm definitely excited to have a bed," he said. "And this recliner? This is great."
Boyce, a formerly homeless veteran who moved into the one-bedroom apartment in December, received a queen-sized bed, a kitchen table and other furniture from a new Southampton nonprofit called Homeward Vets.
Established in March, the nonprofit provides home furnishings to chronically homeless veterans who are "transitioning to permanent housing," said its president, David Felty.
"Some of these veterans get housing, but they don't have anything else," Felty said after helping move the furniture into Boyce's apartment May 20. "We're trying to fix that."
His wife, Lisa Felty, is the nonprofit's treasurer as well as the director of the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program for the Northampton Housing Authority. The program gives rent vouchers to chronically homeless veterans so they can find housing.
More than 150 veterans have been able to secure housing with the vouchers, she said, but that does not mean they are out of the woods. Many times, Homeward Vets has delivered furniture to a completely bare apartment, where the veteran had been sleeping on the floor. "Until you see it, it can be hard to believe," Felty said.
She said the nonprofit can play a key role in helping veterans feel comfortable in their new living quarters, setting them up to succeed in the transition from homelessness. "It's about doing anything we can to help people from falling back into homelessness," she said.
Homeward Vets became a nonprofit corporation in March, but David and Lisa Felty, both 41, have been helping veterans in the voucher program get furniture since 2008.
"We'd pick up used furniture we'd see on the side of the road, and keep it in a shed in our yard for vets who might need it," Lisa Felty recalled.
David Felty, who works for Five Star Building Corp. in Easthampton, said he and his wife decided to make their charity work official this spring, although they were not sure how they were going to pull it off while raising their five children and working full time.
"Everybody laughed and said, 'Good luck with that,' and 'When are you going to find time for that?' " Lisa Felty said.
Since then, in the evenings after their day jobs, they've helped furnish the new homes of more than 30 veterans in Northampton, Amherst, Springfield and other communities.
"The first day we incorporated, the first person we helped was a woman who was moving into an apartment in Springfield," David Felty recalled. "She was pregnant, due in 30 days, and she only had the clothes on her back."
In addition to providing her with furniture from Homeward Vets, the Feltys gave her their own child's crib, as well as bags full of baby clothes.
A month after incorporating, Homeward Vets got a windfall when the Disabled Veterans National Foundation in Washington contacted it to offer three tractor-trailer truckloads of used furniture donated by the Days Inn hotel chain, which was refurbishing rooms.
After a slightly panicked search for a place to put the furniture, Felty secured donated storage space at the Walter Salvo House on Conz Street. Autumn Management in Easthampton and Westmass Area Development Corp. in Ludlow have also donated storage space.
David Felty said Homeward Vets welcomes donations of home furnishings, from silverware and lamps to bedroom or kitchen sets, as long as they are in good condition. Anyone wishing to donate can contact the nonprofit at info@homewardvets.org.
Word of mouth
Boyce said he heard of Homeward Vets through a few friends who had received furniture through the nonprofit. "I saw how pleased they were after they got it, so I called," he said.
When he first moved into the one-bedroom apartment on Village Hill, he was able to get some used furniture from the Salvation Army. The organization did not have a bed for him, however, so he has been sleeping on his pull-out couch for the last six months.
"David's a savior," Boyce said, looking around his apartment. "David saved me."
Lisa Felty said one issue the fledgling enterprise faces is that the people who most need help often don't feel comfortable asking for it.
She said the veterans she works with frequently decline assistance. David Felty, however, has been able to persuade some of them to take furniture or kitchenware, partly because he is a veteran himself.
A native of Bristol, Tenn., he served in the U.S. Navy from 1990 to 1995, including two tours in the Gulf War.
"Maybe, because they go from having nothing to having their own place, they feel like they shouldn't ask for more," he speculated of some veterans' reluctance to accept help. "But we want to tell them, 'You do deserve these things.' "
Boyce said he hopes other veterans will "swallow their pride" and call the nonprofit if they need assistance outfitting their living quarters. "I'm going to go up to (the VA) tomorrow and spread the word," he said. "Dave's going to be getting a lot of calls."
As Felty shook hands with Boyce before he walked out the door, he couldn't resist offering one more item. "Do you have an air conditioner?" Felty asked. " 'Cause we've got air conditioners."
Boyce thanked him but declined the offer. "I'm good," he said.
Rebecca Everett can be reached at reverett@gazettenet.com.
Source: www.gazettenet.com
Artwork's long journey home ends desert mystery - Sydney Morning Herald
Lost and found: The missing painting will be removed from sale after it was offered for auction as part of the late American billionaire and philanthropist John W Kluge's estate. Photo: Joe Armao
A SIGNIFICANT Papunya Tula painting missing for more than 10 years has turned up at auction in Melbourne, and its journey — from hanging in a remote Northern Territory health service to yesterday’s withdrawal from sale as part of an American billionaire’s collection — is rockier than Uluru.
The work, catalogued as Old Tatump and Natuma Tjaltjarri (1915-1987), was last month identified by Melbourne-based curator John Kean, formerly arts adviser to Papunya Tula Artists and the interim administrator for Pintupi Homelands Health Service at Walungurru (or Kintore) community in the NT in the mid-80s.
Mr Kean says he commissioned the work, depicting the journey of the Pintupi and Luritja people from Papunya, where they unhappily lived from 1957 to 1981, to their homeland 530 kilometres west of Alice Springs, from artist Charlie Wartuma, a founder of Papunya.
The work was part of the late American billionaire and philanthropist John W. Kluge’s collection being sold tomorrow night through Mossgreen Auctions to benefit Columbia University, where Mr Kluge studied. It will now be repatriated to the health service for its historic, not financial, worth.
Dubious sales have plagued this important art movement, and establishing provenance remains the most challenging issue facing the indigenous Australian art market today — and this painting, despite the happy ending, is no exception.
Several weeks ago, Mr Kean was showing a slide of the large acrylic on plywood story board during a lecture at the Victorian Arts Centre, explaining it had disappeared 10 years ago, when a member of the audience told him it was in the latest Mossgreen catalogue under a different title.
Mr Kean, who believes it is the work he commissioned despite the title difference, alerted Mossgreen’s indigenous art specialist, Shaun Dennison, and Pintupi Health Service board.
Mr Dennison traced the provenance and the Pintupi Health Service board wrote to Columbia University explaining the work’s historic significance, requesting the work’s donation.
Mr Dennison says he believes the painting’s disappearance from the health service goes back further. Documentation shows it was purchased by the Mr Kluge in 1996.
Mr Dennison cites four prior owners – a ranger in the Kintore area, Peter Bartlett; Yuendumu community dealer Peter Van Groesen; Kimberly Art director Peter Harrison; and the Museum Art International Adelaide director, David Cossey.
Mr Kean said last night that discussions he had had with senior health worker at Pintupi Health Service, Marlene Nampitjinpa, and board member, Tommy Conway, indicated that the painting had been “illegally taken” from the health service.
Mrs Nampitjinpa, who still works at the health service, says “it must have been wrapped in a blanket at night time and taken away”.
Source: www.smh.com.au
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